Ayyan Ali leaves for Dubai after name removed of ECL

The Ministry of Interior issued a notification on Wednesday, removing the name of Ayyan Ali from the Exit Control List in compliance to a Supreme Court order.

The Ministry forwarded the notification to all concerned departments.

According to the notification, Ayyan’s name has been removed in accordance with the Supreme Court’s verdict of January 30, 2017.

The apex court in a verdict, allowed Ayyan Ali to travel abroad upholding the earlier verdict of the Sindh High Court (SHC), which had ordered the government to remove Ayyan Ali’s name from the ECL, on January 19.

In its verdict, the SHC had stated that the interior ministry had put her name in the ECL with malafide intent.

The model was stopped at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport on March 14, 2015 before reportedly boarding a flight to Dubai. She was arrested on charges of money laundering after customs officials recovered $506,000 from her luggage.

She was granted bail in July last year after spending around four months in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail — and after her judicial remand was extended at least 16 times.

Her name was repeatedly included and removed from the ECL. The model later filed a contempt of court application against the federal government for not allowing her to travel abroad despite the court’s directive to strike her name off ECL.